Only a few names from the furniture and interior-design world cross over from collectors to popular culture. Charles and Ray Eames, Marcel Breuer, George Nelson, Isamu Noguchi… and recently John Dickinson. Dickinson, who died in 1982, was one of the 20th century’s most whimsical designers.

Born in Berkeley Calif., and trained at Parsons School of Design in New York, Dickinson returned to San Francisco to establish his design practice in 1956. Dickinson’s decorating was equally tailored. He was a modernist who acknowledged Jean-Michel Frank and Robsjohn-Gibbings as influences.

Each piece of furniture was meant to sit in its own space. Once he carpeted a coffee table, so it matched the rug underneath it.

An elegant, intelligent man, Dickinson became the darling of San Francisco society in the 1960′s Dickinson created a total look. ”What I do is always mine,” he said. ”I think this idea that everyone pays lip service to — that a room should reflect the client more than the decorator — is utter nonsense. My rooms always end up looking like me.’